Relying only on an internet connection from a normal cellphone,
industrial drone company Skypersonic — part of publicly traded
drone company Red Cat Holdings (NASDAQ: RCAT) — visually inspected
the interior of a fully operational utility plant in Turin, Italy,
using a drone controlled from Orlando, Fla., 4,800 miles away.
To see a video of this historic transoceanic remote flight,
click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq8ftbUyBu8.
The Orlando-based pilot — Drew Camden, president of Red Cat
subsidiary Rotor Riot — had no advance knowledge of the Iren
district heating-network plant in Turin through which he piloted
the Skypersonic “Skycopter” drone. This special drone can be
piloted without the aid of GPS, a fundamental system for piloting
conventional drones outdoors but that is not available indoors,
under bridges, in tunnels and other enclosed spaces.
Pilot Camden had never visited the Italian plant, nor seen any
drawings or photos of the floor plan or the layout of the many
staircases, stacks, ducts, conduit, joists and other obstacles
through which he guided the Skycopter from across the Atlantic
Ocean. All he could go by was the video feed from the drone, which
allowed him — thanks to Skypersonic’s technology minimizing signal
lag across oceanic distances — to see and react to the building’s
interior in near-real time, with a reception lag, or “latency,” of
only 68 milliseconds, i.e., less than a tenth of a second.
“We learned much from this historic flight controlled from an
ocean away, which is actually our third trans-Atlantic flight,”
said Giuseppe Santangelo, Skypersonic CEO. “Most importantly, we
learned that an internet connection via a mobile phone in the
vicinity of the drone is all that is needed to remotely pilot a
drone from virtually anywhere – in fact, up to 8,000 miles away.
The previous two flights had relied on a more sophisticated,
non-mobile internet connection. We also learned that it is possible
to navigate a very dense and complex interior environment from
another continent using this easily configurable set-up.”
This demonstration in the Iren plant was promoted by the Turin
House of Emerging Technologies with the collaboration of the
University of Turin. Iren is the leading multi-utility company in
northwest Italy in the fields of electricity, gas, thermal energy
for district heating, energy efficiency and of the management of
integrated water, environmental and technological services.
Santangelo noted that the possibilities are enormous for this
advanced yet easy-to-use and extremely portable remote-piloting
technology:
“We had already proven, through a two-year inspection program
with General Motors, that using drones flown by on-site pilots to
inspect industrial facilities brings significant savings in time
and money over the traditional method of erecting scaffolding and
hoisting personnel in the air – as well as being immeasurably
safer, of course. These time- and money-saving benefits are
exponentially greater when the drone pilot – always the most
expensive component of using drones – never needs to leave his
office to inspect any building virtually anywhere in the world.
Travel expenses are eliminated completely and, because no travel is
involved, the pilot’s time commitment drops from days to hours,
which also means that a pilot can conduct several inspections on
the same day with drones operating thousands of miles away while
remaining in the same place.”
Santangelo said that the invention of Skypersonic’s
remote-piloting technology was prompted by the travel restrictions
imposed by the COVID pandemic:
“Pre-COVID, our normal procedure was to send a pilot to a
customer to train them in using the Skycopter for interior
inspections. But the lockdowns imposed by COVID made this
impossible, so we had to come up with an alternative and I tasked
our software engineers to develop a way to remotely pilot drones
over the internet. When this was accomplished, our customers were
able to begin practicing flying their new drone before it even
arrived by remotely flying a similar drone located in our offices
in Detroit or Turin. The customer needs just a radio controller
connected to the internet and our remote piloting software. And
then when the customer receives their drone, our pilot in Detroit
or Turin can show them how to fly it by taking over control of the
drone from thousands of miles away. The necessities imposed by
COVID have created a new world of opportunities and fundamentally
transformed our business model. In fact, ‘Remotely Flying Drones
AnywhereTM’ has become the core business strategy for Red Cat
Holdings’ enterprise segment, of which Skypersonic is a part.”
About SkypersonicHeadquartered in Detroit with
a European office in Turin, Italy, Skypersonic is a leader in the
use of drones for industrial inspections and first response
emergency situations, as well as in “Remotely Flying Drones
AnywhereTM” via its ground-breaking internet-based piloting system.
Skypersonic’s flagship is the Skycopter: a drone with a tiltable
video camera that is designed to work in extreme conditions and
ultra-tight spaces. It is enclosed and protected by an external
aerodynamic, ultra-light and ultra-resistant cage to ensure safety
and avoid damage to inspected structures and to the airframe
itself. It is also fitted with an ultra-bright 360° LED lighting
system for applications in complete darkness, and sensors to detect
gases and radiation can also be added. Skycopter uses Skyloc
technology: a real-time location and monitoring system able to
control and track with extremely high accuracy the movements of the
drone in indoor scenarios or where GPS is not available.
Skypersonic also invented the first-ever worldwide civil real-time
remote piloting system that allows piloting in FPV (first-person
view) any drone (not just the Skycopter) located anywhere from a
generic internet station located anywhere.
About Red Cat HoldingsRed Cat Holding, a
publicly traded company (NASDAQ listing: RCAT) provides drone
products, technologies and services to the fastest growing market
segments in the drone industry through four operating subsidiaries:
Skypersonic (providing drones for industrial inspections and first
response emergencies that can be piloted from anywhere in the
world), Teal Drones (military grade drones), Fat Shark (headsets
for FPV drones that allow for an incredibly immersive experience)
and Rotor Riot (a leader in providing product, services and support
to the high performance drone market).
About IrenIren is the leading multi-utility
company in the Northwest of Italy in the fields of electricity,
gas, thermal energy for district heating, energy efficiency and of
the management of integrated water, environmental and technological
services. Present in Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany,
but projected into a wider multi-regional catchment, the Group
operates in the territories with a multiplicity of services such
as: the production of electricity (already today 75% derived from
renewable sources) and thermal energy for district heating, a
sector in which Iren is the national leader; the implementation of
technological solutions for energy efficiency and smart cities to
support the Public Administration; the management of the integrated
waste cycle (where it boasts percentages of separate collection
with peaks of 80%); the development of circular economy solutions
thanks to over 40 waste treatment plants; the management and
enhancement of the integrated water cycle and electricity and gas
distribution networks with high-efficiency performance; the
strengthening of a support and sales network for the benefit of the
2 million customers through physical branches, call centres and
apps. Iren delivers its services thanks to approximately 9,000
employees and with a portfolio of approximately 2 million customers
in the energy sector, 2.8 million inhabitants served in the
integrated water cycle and 3.1 million inhabitants in the
environmental cycle. Thanks to a high technological know-how, a
long-term vision and a significant investment capacity, Iren is a
reference partner for communities and public administrations in
projects to enhance the territories, projecting them into a path of
sustainable growth. With these objectives, in 2021 Iren approved a
ten-year strategic plan, the most ambitious in the history of the
multi-utility company, with 12.7 billion in investments by 2030,
which is based on three fundamental pillars: ecological transition,
attention to the territory and quality of the service.
Contact:For Skypersonic:Anthony
Priwerapriwer@daltonagency.com
615-515-4891
For Iren:Roberto
Bergandiroberto.bergandi@gruppoiren.it39-011-554-9911
(o)39-335-632-7398 (c)
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